Thank you Guys! Altough I've been several times to the Zoo since they started to keep Malayan Tapirs again in 1995, I never saw them oustide, but I can't rembember, if the house was open to the public-I wasn't inside, so much I still know. But today, the Zoo has the largest tapir house in the world...I hope, it is still open ? How are the inside enclosures for the tapirs and bearded pigs ?
A Tapir by any other name I believe the Dutch name is Indische Tapir, from the Latin name. Early Dutch zoologists would have thought of it as the East Indian Tapir.
In one of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels the American detective is in London in 76 and runs past the deer and cattle sheds ! in his defence the guide book for that there !year still had the deer and cattle sheds there. Can anyone tell me in which year the public were locked out from going inside where there were two corridors separated by a low wall and glass so you had to go in and out to see both sides like the stork and ostrich house which now contains African birds and tigers?
Hi Phascogale, Sorry I can't help you with your specific query re access to the inner enclosures of the Deer & Cattle sheds but I have a feeling that the eastern corridor was cut off much earlier than the western side. I was first taken to London Zoo around 1958, and I remember the overwhelming sense of awe in viewing the rhinos' in their inner enclosure separated by only a massive glass panel. The rhinos appeared to me to be absolutely huge. There were black and white but at that age I could not tell the difference. The other side of the house contained all manner of deer including red deer, which I cannot remember seeing at Regent's Park since then. By the early sixties the Cotton Terraces were developed, and the deer moved there. That's when the eastern side was given over to dogs, and I cannot remember ever being able to view the inner enclosures from that time onwards. Hope that's accurate information, but time plays tricks on the memory. You never knew what you were going to see in the D & C. There were a few internal dens not really viewable by the public. One day craning my neck into one of these I was delighted to see a Gnu, enabling me to "spot it" in my "I-spy at the Zoo"! Best wishes, Michael
I am not familiar with this detective story; however, the old Deer & Cattle Sheds were demolished to make way for the New Lion Terraces which opened in 1976, so the Deer & Cattle Sheds were certainly no longer in existence in the year that the book was set. Michael’s memories of going inside the old Deer & Cattle Sheds are very similar to mine. In the days when the Deer & Cattle Sheds housed only ungulates, the interior of the building was opened to visitors and, as a young child, I went inside many times. Frustratingly after 1964, when the former deer accommodation was used to house wild dogs, the building was invariably closed to the public (at least on my visits) so I don’t recall ever going inside again. (It must be more than half-a-century since I last went inside the building but, if I remember correctly after all these years, there was a doorway built into the wall that divided the two corridors so it was possible to see both sides without having to go out and in again.) For more memories of the old Deer & Cattle Sheds see:- http://www.zoochat.com/38/cattle-sheds-409921/
The Red Deer moved to the Cotton terraces and occupied the large enclosure directly below the Giraffe House( now the site of the altered Hunting Dogs' enclosure). There was a single stag and about fifteen hinds and calves making a herd of about 20. They later disappeared making way for other rarer species like the Arabian Oryx. I also remember Timor(?) Deer on the lower Cottons too but no other deer by then, just Antelope.
The interior was certainly closed to the public permanently by circa 1968, though I don't know the year that actually happened.
Does anyone have any pictures of the turtles that used to live in the Aquarium? I remember seeing them as a child in the 90s (c.?). I found this article on their move to Blackpool and then to Brighton.
Regrettably I have no photos of the marine turtles in the London Zoo Aquarium. Three green turtles and a loggerhead turtle were sent to Blackpool in 1984; some of these animals had been in the zoo for thirty odd years.
If this turtles were sent to Blackpool in 1984-which turtles were used for the movie"Turtle Diaries"with Ben Kingsley ? As far as I know, this wonderful movie was made in 1987 and was shown in cinemas in 1988.
The loggerhead turtle and the three green turtles were definitely sent to Blackpool in 1984; since you queried it, I have double-checked in the Zoological Society of London Annual Report for 1984. There were, though, still hawksbill turtles at the zoo after 1984.
Not sure if this question has been answered elsewhere but the colony was finally dispersed in about 1989 with a big group of about 15 individuals going, via Ravensden, to a Belgian dealer. Where they went from there is anyone's guess. A few odd ones went direct to Suffolk Wildlife Park and Drayton Manor around this time too while others went to collections in Germany and the Czechoslovakia. Throughout the 1970s, many individuals bred at RP went to Frank Farrar and a small colony was established with RP stock in the early 1980s at a small place near Ramsgate.
I'm looking for more detailed informations about the Accident of the female Indian Rhino"Miss Bet". In December 1871 she fell into the frozen Waterpool and could be rsecued by their keepers. I only found a drawing, showing a group of men pushing her out of the pool with ropes, but with none of informations about this accident. Thank you.
Frank Buckland devotes two pages of his book “Log Book of a Fisherman and Zoologist” to this incident. In December 1870, after a heavy fall of snow, the Indian rhinoceros "Miss Bet" fell through the ice covering the surface of the pool. (EDIT Buckland gives the year as 1870 but other sources say 1871) According to Buckland, the pond was nine feet deep and the rhino was in great danger of drowning. The zoo’s superintendent, Abraham Bartlett, immediately removed a plug from the pond to drain away the water and barrow loads of gravel were added to the slippery sides of the pond to give the animal a foothold. A strong rope was secured around the haunches of the rhinoceros and twenty-six men hauled her out of the pool. Buckland reports that neither the rhinoceros, nor any of the twenty-six men, suffered any injuries. “Miss Bet” lived at the zoo for a further three years after this incident, dying on 14th December 1873, after more than twenty-three years at the zoo. I assume the picture you are referring to is the watercolour by Ernest Griset; see link below. The Circus "NO SPIN ZONE": Miss Bet--London Zoo 1870
As a secondary school boy I was a member of the XYZ club and went frequently to Regents Park. This would have been 1967 to 1972 ish. One of the exhibits I remember with great fondness was the walk though Humming Bird house with free flying Humming Birds. I don't remember the species though. Does anywhere exhibit Humming Birds now in the UK?
Hello CliffDavis I liked the old Hummingbird House and it was a shame when it was knocked down. Zootierliste does not list any hummingbirds currently in UK zoos. Hello Kiang Zootierliste does not list any giant otters ever living at London Zoo.
